


Steven and the Crystal Gems

by purpleeyesandbowties



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Baby!Steven, Character Study, F/F, Gen, aftermath of Rose's death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-15
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-03-23 03:38:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3753103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/purpleeyesandbowties/pseuds/purpleeyesandbowties
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a brief character-study on Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl dealing with Rose's death and baby Steven.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Steven and the Crystal Gems

**Author's Note:**

> again, a conglomeration of a bunch of headcanons of mine. let me know if something doesnt make sense and i'll try to fix it/explain. un-beta'd, all mistakes mine. (feel free to point them out and i will fix). i'm really sorry.

**Garnet**

The thing was, Garnet had always been a self-contained unit. She had herself—or rather, she had Ruby and Sapphire, and so as long as they had each other, they could be comforted. Garnet loved Rose Quartz, of course. But the loss of her dear friend and leader didn't hit her as hard as it did the others. And she had always been good at hiding her feelings when the situation demanded it. This situation definitely counted. So she grieved quietly and alone, and got to work.

Someone had to raise the baby boy Rose had left behind, and none of the others were in any kind shape to do it. Pearl had retreated to her room in the temple and Garnet thought it best to let her grieve in peace. Amethyst was out and about, but more out than about. She took all the missions, even the ones they should have taken as a team. Greg tried his best, but he was often reduced to tears within a few hours with Steven, and of course he had no idea how to deal with a magical child. So Ruby and Sapphire split up themselves and their time. Sapphire sang Steven to sleep, Ruby prepared bottles of human baby formula. Sapphire bathed and changed Steven, Ruby began building a small house attached to the temple for Steven to live until he was old enough to access Rose's Room. They met in the middle every once in a while, for stolen moments of comfort. These moments were few and far between, as the care of Steven kept them busy. The first time Steven laughed they both broke down into tears, because the unfamiliar baby had a painfully familiar laugh.

Garnet comforted her team mates as best she could, and eventually made them spend time with Steven. Without her insistence they help care for the baby, Garnet was sure they would have retreated into their gems and not come out until he had lived and died. A human lifespan was not all that much to a Gem, after all.

 

**Pearl**

The loss of Rose had nearly destroyed Pearl. She had been by Rose’s side for so long, hundreds of years longer than either of the other two. And she had loved Rose since the day they met. Pearl knew that Rose would never love her back. It wasn’t possible for a servant like Pearl to be with someone like Rose Quartz, but she loved her regardless. And Rose loved her in a different, nearly as special way. Pearl was her most trusted friend, her shoulder to lean on in times of trouble. Where Rose was a fearless leader to Garnet and Amethyst, she allowed herself to be weak in front of Pearl. Pearl treasured those rare moments dearly (and relived them via hologram more than a few times).

After her death, Pearl couldn’t even cry. She desperately wanted to, but the tears refused to come, leaving her tired and with a strange empty tightness in her chest. She locked herself in her room and  slept for two weeks, although she had no need for it.

It was the baby who woke her, with its loud wailing. She emerged from the temple door into the cool night air with the intention of finding a quieter place to waste away, but a harried-looking Ruby ran by and shoved the crying bundle into Pearl’s arms.

“Take him, take him, I need to get his bottle!”

Ruby pointed to a book on the floor, still dashing around frantically. “That human guide to raising babies says he needs to eat every three hours. It’s been three hours and five minutes since his last bottle and I think he’s gonna die!”

“O-oh. Okay. I suppose …Rose wouldn’t want him to die.” Pearl said quietly. The baby shifted in her arms, still wailing, and a tiny fist smacked her face. “Ouch!”

She tucked the blanket in a bit more securely around him, immobilizing his arms. He began to quiet down, happily swaddled. Ruby put a warm bottle in Pearl’s hand and dashed out of the temple. She called back, “You feed him. I need to go get Greg. He wanted to know next time Steven woke up.”

“Steven,” Pearl muttered. The boy snuffled around the bottle and some formula leaked out the side of his mouth. Pearl wiped it away with her finger.

Oh…she had planned to hate this child, the reason Rose was gone. She had steeled herself to it. But this baby—Steven—he had the same aura of love that Rose always carried with her, the same aura that made Pearl pledge her life’s service to Rose in the first place.

 Quietly, tears dipped onto Steven’s blanket. Pearl cried silently, trying not to jostle the baby. Every fallen tear lessened the weight on her heart, bit by bit. Every shuddering breath was easier than the last. Pearl traced a finger over Steven’s cheek, gently.

“Of course Rose wanted you to live. She loved you so much, even though you meant she would be gone. For her sake, I want you to live, too. For her sake, and for yours, I will protect you. I served your mother with all my heart and I pledge the same to you, Steven Quartz.”

 

**Amethyst**

Amethyst needed other gems. Her little makeshift family knew this well, Rose most of all. After spending decades alone in the Kindergarten, she had been starved of attention and affection. Rose had taken it all in stride, allowing Amethyst to cling to her and holding her for hours at a time on bad days. The huge, huge empty space Rose left behind was almost too much to bear.

Steven had been alive for almost a month before Amethyst met him. She spent a lot of time out of the temple. She went on solo missions Garnet was too busy to do, and did well. Fueled by her grief and anger, no monster stood a chance against her. But, overly confident and reckless, she took a team mission on by herself and paid for it.

She stumbled back to the warp pad, clutching her side. She mumbled curses under her breath, aimed at the now-bubbled gem monster who had inflicted the injury. Angrily, she warped back to the temple, pain growing worse with every moment.

“I’m back,” she announced to the empty temple. She wrinkled her nose at the smell, sending the bubble to the heart of the temple.  Pearl emerged from the temple, clothespin firmly on her nose, and holding a freshly-changed Steven. She gave Amethyst a small nod and a faint smile. It was the most Amethyst had gotten from her since before Rose died.

Amethyst took a step off the warp pad. Pain seared through her, bright hot. She had just enough time to think, _crap, poison,_ before she retreated into her gem to fight it off.

Pearl sighed tiredly and scooped up the gem with her spare hand. “I knew you were going to do something stupid like that,” she muttered. Steven cooed curiously.

“It’s about time for your nap,” Pearl said to him, finally daring to remove the clothespin. She set him in his crib, covered him with a pink blanket, and stuck his favorite teddy bear in his arms. “I’ll be back in a little bit,” she promised.

Steven whined and tried to reach for the purple gem in Pearl’s hands.

“What, you want to hold Amethyst?” Pearl asked. “Well…I’m sure you couldn’t hurt her….”

She replaced the teddy bear in Steven’s arms with Amethyst’s gem. Steven gurgled happily and settled down. He gummed it for a moment before dropping off to sleep. A steady stream of drool fell onto the gem in his pudgy hands.

 

Amethyst felt herself start to emerge from her gem. “What the—“

She had only been in for an hour at most. There was absolutely no way for her to have healed that quickly. Only Rose’s tears could have sped along the healing process that quickly.

She emerged to crying, and a lot of it. It seemed to be coming from under her….

Oh, _crap_.

She jumped out of the crib as carefully as she could. Steven, who could breathe again, continued crying, but louder now that he had oxygen supply.

Amethyst crept closer, peering down at him. “I’m sorry, little dude. I didn’t mean to sit on you.”

Steven blinked at her, snuffling. A tiny smile crossed Amethyst’s face. “Hey, you’re pretty cute. I guess we haven’t met, officially. I mean, I knew you before you were you, when you were Rose Quartz, but…Anyway, I’m Amethyst.”

She perched on the edge of the crib, staring down at Steven. He squirmed a bit, his shirt riding up, revealing the pink gem on his bellybutton.

“Look at that! You have your mom’s gem! You know, I used to be the youngest of the gems. Guess you took my place,” She chuckled a bit. “Good luck with that, kid.”

Amethyst didn’t know how much time passed as she watched Steven doze off again. She felt….different. Not sad exactly—she had cried enough to last a thousand lifetimes in the past month and was all out of tears. She felt....expectant, as if she was waiting for something. And she still felt very alone. A quiet voice behind her said, “you can’t help but love him, can you?”

Without turning around, Amethyst said, “I don’t know if I’m ready to love him. Loving someone just makes it worse. Pearl, you know we’re gonna lose him eventually. Humans don’t live long at all.”

She felt, more than heard, Pearl approaching. She stopped just shy of Amethyst, keeping her distance.

“I know,” Pearl said. “But we’ve had practice now, at losing someone. We'll be okay.”

“I miss her so much,” Amethyst whispered. “I feel empty. Lost.”

“I think…we all do.” Pearl said, and laid a hand on her shoulder.

They watched Steven sleep for a moment longer. Pearl reached into the crib and pulled him out, carefully supporting his head. Without preamble, she placed him in Amethyst’s arms. Amethyst looked at her in question.

“It helps,” Pearl said, shrugging. “Holding him, I mean. Makes me feel grounded.”

She was right. The peculiar sense that she could just float away and not care a bit had lessened now, holding Steven. A point of living, breathing, contact holding her down. Pearl quietly turned to leave, but Amethyst stopped her.

 “I’ve missed you too, P,” she burst out. “Don’t leave. Please?”

Pearl nodded. She sat on the floor, back to the wall, legs stretched out in front of her. She held out her arms. Amethyst, still holding Steven, sat down and leaned her back against Pearl’s chest.

They had sat like this before, shortly after Rose rescued Amethyst from the Kindergarten, back when Amethyst was wild. Amethyst had been frantic the first time Rose left the temple. She had tried to follow Rose to the warp pad, screaming through tears. Rose had looked heartbroken as she warped away, but that did nothing to convince Amethyst that her rescuer wasn’t abandoning her like everyone else did.

Pearl had grabbed her around the waist, holding her back from following Rose. Amethyst had struggled, but Pearl was stronger. In an effort to keep her in one place, Pearl had backed into a corner and sat down hard. She'd wrapped all available limbs around Amethyst until the smaller gem had worn herself out. Eventually, Amethyst had quieted down and lay limply against Pearl’s chest. Pearl had tried to extract herself, but Amethyst refused. For the first time, she spoke to Pearl.

“Stay.”

 

Amethyst knew Pearl was remembering that moment, just like she was. She looked down at the sleeping baby in her arms. She whispered, “Stay.”

 


End file.
